The integration of 3D printing technology into smart textiles has witnessed a surge of interest from academia and industry over the past decade. 3D printing’s inherent capability to fabricate intricate and customizable structures enhances functionality across key areas such as wearable electronics, medical textiles, and interactive fashion. Various 3D printing techniques, including Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Ink Writing (DIW), and PolyJet printing, are currently employed in the fabrication of smart textiles. However, the wide range of applications for 3D printing in smart textiles often presents a challenge in synthesizing existing research accomplishments and identifying research gaps. To address this challenge, this review paper offers a comprehensive, application-oriented analysis of these specific 3D printing techniques and the materials utilized across various smart textile applications, including wearable technology, medical textiles, and smart fashion design. Our analysis draws upon a comprehensive review of peer-reviewed literature published between 2016 and 2024, identified through systematic searches of Google Scholar, PubMed, and Scopus. A central aim of this review is to emphasize the critical understanding of these 3D printing techniques for strategically selecting the most suitable method to incorporate advanced functionalities within smart textiles and interactive fashion. Despite significant progress in utilizing 3D printing for smart textile production, substantial challenges persist in the effective integration of diverse wearable sensors, necessitating interdisciplinary collaboration to develop innovative hybrid manufacturing strategies.

Several noteworthy scenarios emerged in the global textile and fashion supply chains during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukraine war. The destabilizing influences of a global pandemic and a geographically localized conflict are being acutely noticed in the worldwide fashion and textile supply chains. This work examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russo-Ukraine conflict on supply chains within the textile and fashion industry. This research employed a content analysis method to identify relevant articles and news from sources such as Google Scholar, the Summon database of North Carolina State University, and the scholarly news portal NexisUni. The selected papers, news articles, and reports provide a comprehensive overview of the fashion, textile, and apparel supply chain disruptions caused by the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, accompanied by discussions from common supply chain perspectives. Disruptions due to COVID-19 include international brands and retailers canceling orders, closures of stores and factories in developing countries, layoffs, and furloughs of workers in both retail stores and supplier factories, the increased prominence of online and e-commerce businesses, the growing importance of automation and digitalization in the fashion supply chain, considerations of sustainability, and the need for a resilient supply chain system to facilitate post-pandemic recovery. In the case of the Russo-Ukraine war, the second-order effects of the conflict have had a more significant impact on the textile supply chain than the direct military operations themselves. In addition to these topics, the study delves into the potential strategies for restoring and strengthening the fashion supply chain. It synthesizes insights from the latest literature to guide future research in understanding and addressing the challenges fashion supply chains face in the COVID-19 era. Overall, this study offers valuable insights that can inform future endeavors in researching and improving the fashion supply chain in the context of the ongoing pandemic and war in Ukraine.

3D printing technology has made significant strides in smart textiles—fabrics embedded with electronics like conductive fibers and sensors—now widely applied in areas such as health con-dition monitoring, wearable energy-harvesting devices, and interactive textiles that respond to environmental conditions and color changes. Different 3D printing methods, such as Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), Direct Ink Writing (DIW), and PolyJet printing, are used in the fabrication of smart textiles. This study provides a detailed, applica-tion-specific overview of 3D printing technologies—such as FDM, SLS, DIW, and PolyJet print-ing—and their use in smart textiles across various sectors, including wearable technology, medical textiles, and smart fashion design. We gathered articles and reports from Scopus and Google Scholar, providing a concise assessment of 3D printing materials for smart textiles to give readers a quick understanding of the field. The timeline of 3D printing’s use in smart textiles, from 2016 to 2023, highlights significant advancements in various additive manufacturing techniques applied to smart textiles. The review emphasizes the importance of understanding 3D printing techniques such as FDM, SLS, DIW, and PolyJet, as their applicability for selecting the best approach to in-corporating advanced functionalities into smart textiles.